PRO FOOTBALL

PRO FOOTBALL; Citing N.F.L., ESPN Cancels 'Playmakers'

By RICHARD SANDOMIR

Published: February 5, 2004

ESPN's ''Playmakers'' series, which offended the National Football League with its frequently harsh characterization of professional football, was canceled yesterday by the network after one season.

The 11-week dramatic series examined subjects like drugs and sex on the fictional Cougars team without ever mentioning the words ''National Football League.'' Early on, the series prompted Paul Tagliabue, the N.F.L. commissioner, to complain to Michael D. Eisner, the chief executive of the Walt Disney Company, ESPN's parent company. Soon after Tagliabue's call to Eisner, ESPN stopped showing promotional commercials for the series during its Sunday night N.F.L. broadcasts.

ESPN defended its right to show the series and withstood a regular level of criticism from inside the N.F.L. But ultimately, ESPN decided that it no longer wanted to keep enraging the league. So it pulled the plug before any work could begin on a second season of shows.

''We proved that we could succeed in doing a dramatic series,'' Mark Shapiro, the executive vice president of ESPN, said. ''Mission accomplished. It played to men and brought in women. We showed we don't have to be as reliant on games as we have in the past.''

But, Shapiro added: ''It's our opinion that we're not in the business of antagonizing our partner, even though we've done it, and continued to carry it over the N.F.L.'s objections. To bring it back would be rubbing it in our partner's face.''

For the league, ESPN's decision not to renew ''Playmakers'' is a piece of good news in a week when it was embarrassed by the exposure of Janet Jackson's right breast by Justin Timberlake during a duet at the Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday night.

In a statement, the league said, ''It was an ESPN decision and now we can all move on.''

Within the N.F.L., the depiction of ''Playmakers'' ranged from Tagliabue's view that it was a ''gross mischaracterization of our sport'' to the CBS commentator Deion Sanders's view that it accurately depicted the dark side of the N.F.L.

In an interview with Bob Costas on HBO last December, Tagliabue said that it was ''one-dimensional and traded in racial stereotypes, and I didn't think that was either appropriate for ESPN or right for our players.''

Jeffrey Lurie, the owner of the Philadelphia Eagles, told The Philadelphia Inquirer last year, ''How would they like it if Minnie Mouse were portrayed as Pablo Escobar and the Magic Kingdom as a drug cartel?''

There were several unlikable characters in ''Playmakers,'' including a manipulative owner and the starting running back, who smoked crack and went to great urological lengths to fool a random drug test.

But it also had a sympathetic character who questioned whether he wanted to keep playing after paralyzing a rival with a crunching tackle and another, who is gay, confronting his teammates in a dramatic locker-room scene.

By ESPN's standards, ''Playmakers'' was a rousing success, averaging a 1.9 Nielsen rating, or 1.62 million households. Though not good by broadcast standards, such a rating is excellent for ESPN and was the network's highest-rated program except for its Sunday night N.F.L. and Saturday prime-time college football games.

John Eisendrath, the creator and executive producer of the series, said he believed that the cancellation had been dictated by the N.F.L.'s pique and that ESPN had backed down.

He was particularly angry because of the program's high ratings and critical acclaim.

''The N.F.L. is entitled to its opinion,'' Eisendrath said, ''but I think they're wrong, and I think they're bullies. They're a monopoly. I think it fell to ESPN to have the strength to stand up to the N.F.L.'s opinion. It's offensive to me that they would bully ESPN that way, so I'm most offended by the N.F.L.'s attitude, which is blatantly hypocritical considering some of the things that go on in the league, which far exceed anything I wrote about.''

He said that for a while, he thought ESPN would fend off the N.F.L.

''In the beginning, I thought, 'O.K., the league's upset, but ESPN will weather the storm.' '' Eventually, he concluded, ''There was no way they wouldn't try to get rid of it.''

Shapiro said that the N.F.L. never threatened to punish ESPN or exclude it from negotiations for the next television contract.

''Not for a minute did they imply that the future of our partnership would be based on this program,'' Shapiro said.

''ESPN is intoxicating for the N.F.L.,'' he added. ''We need to live with each other.''